Radiation therapy has improved the lives of many patients who are battling cancer. Radiation therapy generally includes a series of treatments that specifically targets a cancerous tumor or other structure within the patient's body. Due to the precision required in applying the radiation to a particular area without affecting otherwise healthy tissue, radiation therapy planning software systems have been developed to better pinpoint the delivery of radiation.
In general, the current process of contouring a tumor to identify where the radiation is to be applied is mostly manually and is very time consuming. In addition, applying the contour from one image to another image requires further manual adjustments, thus dramatically increasing the time it takes to generate a treatment plan for the patient.